October 24, 2025 • 18 mins
You'll have to listen to this edition of Shop Talk to get the answer. Plus, some fascinating data on the impact of family meals on our well-being.
Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premium
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Everybody. It's Bill Courtney with an army and normal folks,
welcome to shop top number seventy four, Michael Orr's number.
I don't even know if I said it was Michael
Or's jersey number. Should I ask you this? Do you know?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Like, what's going on with Michael Her and the twoies?
Should we talk about this or no?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Talk about it? I think he's suing them saying he
didn't get any money from the movie, and clearly he's
being misled by some handlers. Yeah, the Two's did not
take any money for Michael Arr.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
It is sad though, how the relationships falling apart, Absolutely pitiful.
How the relationship's falling apart. And oh, I could go deeply.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And he's basically saying they don't love me, They basically
just use me.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I don't believe that at all. Yeah, And I'm going
to tell you something. Leah Towey brings a lot of
heat on herself and because she is so opinionated as
a fellow Memphian, she's so opinionating everything else. But I
will tell you i've met her, she's been nothing but
kind to me. But that has nothing to do with
the fact that Certainly Michael Wore helped Brocrest win games.
(01:11):
Certainly Michael Wore went to Old Miss primarily because the
two E's or Old Miss Royalty and all of that.
But the two E's and the two's children loved Michael
and treated him like a brother and a son, and
they did not take any money from Michael. They if
(01:33):
the very hopsite, they gave a lot to Michael Wore.
And whoever's handlers are advisors are that are having him
an attack mode on them right now? To me, I
think it is really really sad.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, to be clear that they need no more money too,
he's got like one hundred, one hundred and fifty restaurants.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I mean, yeah, well I will twenty seconds say this. Yeah.
There are people who said that I coach Shipman asks
only to make a movie. Yeah, and that is I
mean I was an asked six years before anybody ever
called about any cameras. Right. And while that's very very
(02:13):
few people have said that, it has been said, but
vitriol like that can be starred up in her relationships,
and it has heard of you. I think I show it.
So I kind of feel sorry for not only the twoies,
but also Michael. All of that is noise and it's
a shame. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I think I saw Chavis defend you once on that online.
I think I saw someone post I don't. I'm giving
just letting you know. I'm paying Shaves some credit that
he stuck up for you.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I would I would expect that i'd stick up for him.
But I'm glad he did. But you know, it's listen,
there are people who think we didn't land on the moon.
I could. I could make it rain golden eggs and
we could find some who had about the litter. All right,
So it is what it is, and we're not gonna
(03:06):
worry about naysayers and Debbie Downers and all them. Okay,
but we are going to talk about family meals and
what the American College of Pediatricians say about it. And
I love this topic because before we go to break,
I'm going to say this. The Courtney family, as the
children come up, even when their friends, and when their
(03:28):
friends joined us at the dinner table, so they're six
to twelve, we had a rule it's called stack them.
And before dinner began, everybody took their cell phone, put
in the middle table and stacked them and we're not
allowed to touch them or use them during family dinners.
I rely on my handheld device a lot because my text,
(03:49):
my emails and everything is in it. And with all
I have going on, and I'm all over the place
and traveling all the time, that thing allows me to
be able to be a fish with coaching, running by business,
keeping in contact with four kids that no longer live
in Memphis, keeping up with Lisa and contractors and everything
(04:12):
else I got going on. But I think we can
become addicted to them. And I think sticking a device
and a child's hand at a young age as their
form of media and entertainment is I think it's a
bad practice. I haven't read this yet. Alex has given
(04:33):
us to explore together, but when it says family Meals
American College of Pediatricians and I can see some cell
phone stuff in here, I think that's probably what we're
going to talk about.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
And I don't know if you've heard this, but when
people do that exact thing in the stacking and they
go out for dinner with their friends and the rule
is whoever grabs their phone first has to pay them
for the meal.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I love that. Okay, we're going to add that that's beautiful.
My kids all have jobs. Now when I'm gonna try
to get back kids pay for my meal for once.
All right, So we're going to talk about family meals
and what the American College a Pediatrician says about it.
Right after these brief messages from our gener sponsors, welcome
(05:22):
back to shop talking number seventy four, Michael will number
here we go. Over the past three decades, family time
at the dinner table and family conversation in general has
declined by more than thirty percent. Families with children under
the age of eighteen report having family dinners three to
four times per week. That's actually higher than I would
(05:43):
have expected, but good. One third of families with eleven
to eighteen year olds only eat one or two meals
a week together, only one fourty seven or more together.
The experience at the meal table has also to client
in quality with the increase in distractions such as television, watching,
(06:04):
text messaging, phone conversations, and social media. That's the part,
that's the part right there. Listen, we need to have
a minimum of five bills together as a family. I
get people out for work and business and school functions
and games and stuff. But a minimum five. But when
(06:24):
you're there, it needs to be family dinner. It's interesting
that the thing says the experience at the mill table
has declined in quality with the increase and distractions such
as television, watching, text musch in, phone conversation, social medium.
There's an easy way to fix that. Turn off the
TV and put the phones up. Barriers to family meals
(06:47):
cited by parents include two little time, child and adults,
scheduling challenges, and food preparation. Most parents, however, say they
place a high value on family meals, ranking them above
every other activity, including vacations, playing together, and religious services,
and helping them connect with their families and children. Most
(07:08):
wish they had more family dinners. Studies have found that
benefits such as maintenance of normal body weight, healthy eating patterns,
and less disordered eating are found when families eat at
least three meals per week together. It is also difficult
to differentiate the effect of overall quality of child rearing
by parents who practice family mills from the benefits of
(07:28):
the family mill itself. However, even the most rigid research
demonstrates the benefits to be specific to the family table,
especially for adolescents who are less likely to experience depressive
symptoms if there are more family meals. Researchers have attempted
to define the characteristics of family meals that are the
(07:51):
most beneficial.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
One meta analysis, which means you combine together all the
different research out there on one topic to find out
what the trend is.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
The one meta analysis of fifty studies oh meta analysis
of fifty studies okay. One combined study of these fifty
studies found six components to be consistently associated with the
nutritional benefits for the children. These characteristics are turning off
the television parental modeling of healthy eating, higher food quality,
(08:23):
a positive atmosphere, children's assistance with food preparation, and law
or mill duration. As early as nineteen forty three, researchers
were discussing the benefits of the family table from a
sociological and cultural viewpoint. Family table talk is an assential
part of the process whereby the family inducts the child
(08:44):
into the life of society. Family meals allow the parents
to impart values and traditions, as well as demonstrative appropriate relationships,
communication techniques, and problem solving skills. Family meals are powerful
for many reasons. First, meal time impact all of our
senses the site, touch, taste, and smell of food, as
(09:06):
well as listening to family conversation. Family meals offer the
opportunity to spend time together, reconnect after a busy day,
communicate with and listen to each other, show values and ideas,
and problem solve. Family meals also contribute to the traditions
that tie family together. A special food for a birthday celebration,
a favorite place to eat for special occasions, a cultural
(09:29):
ethnic food unique to the family's heritage. These become traditions
that provide meaning and contacts for children as they grow.
Family meals provide structure for the day, allowing children to
feel more secured and safe, knowing what to expect. They
also permit parental monitoring of children's moods. This is important.
(09:50):
They permit parental monitoring of children's moods, behavior, and activities,
providing parents with insights to the emotional wellbeing of their
child child. When extended to neighbors and friends, family meals
allow children to learn to appreciate social interactions, understand the
importance of community, and experience different ideas while under the
(10:11):
guidance of their parents. The family table is one of
the very few places that children can observe their parents interact, negotiate,
solve problems, express emotions, and treat one another with respect.
A child's world is mostly spent with peers and teachers.
The family table gives them a chance to see how
adults interact and cooperate. It also leads to improved academics.
(10:36):
Language development is enhanced. It improves family relationships socialization. It
improves nutrition and decreases obesity, decreases screen time and television viewing.
It decreased risk of drug, alcohol, and nicotine use. It
decreased other high risk behaviors. Teens who had more frequent
(10:57):
family dinners, for instance, were less likely to engage in
sexual activity, even after controlling for family connections and other
family activities. Teens who had more frequent family dinners were
less likely to engage in problem behaviors such as physical violence,
property destruction, stealing, and running away from home. Also, family
(11:18):
dinners improve mental health and emotional wellbeing. So the question
is with that which, by the way, what a study?
Why when we know the data and none of this
is new. I mean, I know this is a meta
analytic thing, but like it said, since early sixties, they've
(11:40):
been studying importance family dinners. Why when the American College
of Pediatricians are putting out this data how important family
meals are. Why in the world do I still see
people sometimes even in restaurants, having a family meal and
three of the kids sitting there on their phone. It
(12:01):
drives me nuts. Do you allow it? No?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I mean I've no devices. I'm really against devices in general.
So mine are pretty young. You know, they're six to
eleven years old. So no, I mean even all these
parents who will let their kids bring in devices into restaurants.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I watch kids sit there with likes not even a phone,
a tablet, watching a TV show or a cartoon or
something at the dinner table and a restaurant. It's it's
it's worse. It's just rude. I mean, who with with
(12:38):
the ear plugs in? What is?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Sometimes with no earplugs? I'll be on the airplane. I
don't know if you experienced this too loud.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
And I'm like ridiculous, But the question is, what are
you getting? Why even take your family to dinner? Why
not just PLoP the kid in front of the TV
and go do something else. I mean, they're not even
listening to or engaging with you.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I mean, you are setting your kids up for failure. Basically,
you're basically saying, and there is no way this child
can learn how to behave, So we're just gonna do this.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
How about interpersonal relationships? How about learning? How about learning
how to use a knife and a fork properly so
one day when you're a business dinner you don't look
like a fricking chromagnon. The all of it. It drives
me insane. So besides the fact that I have a
personal problem with it, the American College of Pediatricians also says,
(13:30):
have family meals together without a phone, a tablet, the
TV on the TV tray was the worst invention on
the face of the planet. Sit at a table, turn
the noise off, turn your phone. When I grew up,
if the phone rang and I was eating dinner, I
wouldn't even allowed to answer it, or if I was
(13:52):
near it, I could pick up and say, Hey, I'm
having dinner. I'll call you right back when it's overclick.
I mean, it should be a sacric, sainct thing that
you have a family dinner with your children without any
r options that you get. Do you know what Lisa,
did we did a good thing bad thing? Yeah, and
(14:12):
they I pulled.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
It out of that article, I think, but they had
in there talking about like rose Thorn and Buda, the
same idea, same thing.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
What good thing happened today? What bad thing happened to
you today? And go around and all it does is
it just starts conversation. It was a good day, it
was good. Yeah. Max would say. The bad thing that
happened to be today is I had to play the
stupid good thing bad thing game. Yeah. I mean, you
know you deal with that, but it's worth it. And
(14:42):
I will tell you our children now as young adults,
there's two things their kids are going to do. They're
going to do the yard work and they're going to
have family dinners because they now appreciate what that meant
for our family dynamic.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
And none of your kids are lacking words.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, they're all abundant their words. That's it.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Hey, one thing just to harb onto, you were a
stressing technology a lot and I get it, but a
lot of it too, is just too having more volume
of the family meals. People allow the busyness of life, travel, sports,
all of these things to get in the way so
making it even just more of a priority.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, well, and I said that five seven, not one,
But that's it, Alex is right. Shopped out number seventy four. Guys,
family meals. If you want to build an army and
normal folks, you got to raise an army and normal folks.
And the way you raise an army and normal folks
is you teach them. And the best place to teach
is at the dinner table. So shop talk number seventy four.
(15:42):
The American College of Pediatrics teaches us what we already know,
that the volume of family dinners you have with your
children and the quality of those dinners by turning off
the noise and the distractions and noundate us every day
with TV and tablets and phones and actually spinning an
hour or with your family, talking and interacting and enjoying
(16:04):
one another's company. The American College Pediatrics say that is
vital to raising your children healthy and well, both mentally
and physically. And I say it's vital to our civility.
It's vital to our civics that we do it. So
shot out number seventy four. Have more family meals and
(16:25):
make the quality of them higher by turning out the
noise anything else, Alex. Really cool.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Example of this too is also doing your extended family.
And so I don't know if you've heard about this
from the Wilson family, but for example, back to when
their dad was alive, Kevin's Wilson, his wife would start
having the family meals every weekend and they may have
had I don't know the number forty or something. And
Kevin's you know, Wilson, our friend has talked about they've
(16:52):
still continued it.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
His wife, Norman and them do it.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
And it's like seventy people at these family meals every
single week.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And that's great.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
And not everybody always in town every single week, so
that doesn't you know. But I mean, even if you
can do it like your broader family, you know, doing
it once a week is a really beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And I wish I had my family in town to
do it. I think that's awesome. Maybe when we have
a house again after all this construction, we'll start doing
that too, And we did, We always had. I can't
tell you any times our kids would have a friend
or two or three and we would just have an
extended family dinner. But we would still turn down and
(17:31):
do you know, our kids are now in their late twenties,
early thirties. Our kids' friends still say, do you still
stack them? So? I mean, you know, we had a
stack them thing and our kids did it. But it's
kind of speaks to if that was something they remember.
It tells me that maybe some of those kids didn't
experience that at their own family mills.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
The importance of being uncommon, as you say.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
It's very important to be uncommon. Okay, that's it. Shop
Talk number seventy four. Have more family mills and to
make the uality of a matter by turning off the noise.
It's good for you, it's good for your kids, good
for your family. If you enjoyed this shop Talk, please
rate it, review it, share it on social tell people
about us. If you have ideas for shop talk, you
(18:14):
can write me anytime at Bill at normal folks dot us,
or you can also email me there if you have
good ideas for possible people to highlight on an army
of normal folks. I appreciate you guys joining us, and
until we see you next week, do what you can
Everybody. It's Bill Courtney with an army and normal folks,
welcome to shop top number seventy four, Michael Orr's number.
I don't even know if I said it was Michael
Or's jersey number. Should I ask you this? Do you know?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Like, what's going on with Michael Her and the twoies?
Should we talk about this or no?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Talk about it? I think he's suing them saying he
didn't get any money from the movie, and clearly he's
being misled by some handlers. Yeah, the Two's did not
take any money for Michael Arr.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
It is sad though, how the relationships falling apart, Absolutely pitiful.
How the relationship's falling apart. And oh, I could go deeply.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And he's basically saying they don't love me, They basically
just use me.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I don't believe that at all. Yeah, And I'm going
to tell you something. Leah Towey brings a lot of
heat on herself and because she is so opinionated as
a fellow Memphian, she's so opinionating everything else. But I
will tell you i've met her, she's been nothing but
kind to me. But that has nothing to do with
the fact that Certainly Michael Wore helped Brocrest win games.
(01:11):
Certainly Michael Wore went to Old Miss primarily because the
two E's or Old Miss Royalty and all of that.
But the two E's and the two's children loved Michael
and treated him like a brother and a son, and
they did not take any money from Michael. They if
(01:33):
the very hopsite, they gave a lot to Michael Wore.
And whoever's handlers are advisors are that are having him
an attack mode on them right now? To me, I
think it is really really sad.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, to be clear that they need no more money too,
he's got like one hundred, one hundred and fifty restaurants.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I mean, yeah, well I will twenty seconds say this. Yeah.
There are people who said that I coach Shipman asks
only to make a movie. Yeah, and that is I
mean I was an asked six years before anybody ever
called about any cameras. Right. And while that's very very
(02:13):
few people have said that, it has been said, but
vitriol like that can be starred up in her relationships,
and it has heard of you. I think I show it.
So I kind of feel sorry for not only the twoies,
but also Michael. All of that is noise and it's
a shame. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I think I saw Chavis defend you once on that online.
I think I saw someone post I don't. I'm giving
just letting you know. I'm paying Shaves some credit that
he stuck up for you.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I would I would expect that i'd stick up for him.
But I'm glad he did. But you know, it's listen,
there are people who think we didn't land on the moon.
I could. I could make it rain golden eggs and
we could find some who had about the litter. All right,
So it is what it is, and we're not gonna
(03:06):
worry about naysayers and Debbie Downers and all them. Okay,
but we are going to talk about family meals and
what the American College of Pediatricians say about it. And
I love this topic because before we go to break,
I'm going to say this. The Courtney family, as the
children come up, even when their friends, and when their
(03:28):
friends joined us at the dinner table, so they're six
to twelve, we had a rule it's called stack them.
And before dinner began, everybody took their cell phone, put
in the middle table and stacked them and we're not
allowed to touch them or use them during family dinners.
I rely on my handheld device a lot because my text,
(03:49):
my emails and everything is in it. And with all
I have going on, and I'm all over the place
and traveling all the time, that thing allows me to
be able to be a fish with coaching, running by business,
keeping in contact with four kids that no longer live
in Memphis, keeping up with Lisa and contractors and everything
(04:12):
else I got going on. But I think we can
become addicted to them. And I think sticking a device
and a child's hand at a young age as their
form of media and entertainment is I think it's a
bad practice. I haven't read this yet. Alex has given
(04:33):
us to explore together, but when it says family Meals
American College of Pediatricians and I can see some cell
phone stuff in here, I think that's probably what we're
going to talk about.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
And I don't know if you've heard this, but when
people do that exact thing in the stacking and they
go out for dinner with their friends and the rule
is whoever grabs their phone first has to pay them
for the meal.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I love that. Okay, we're going to add that that's beautiful.
My kids all have jobs. Now when I'm gonna try
to get back kids pay for my meal for once.
All right, So we're going to talk about family meals
and what the American College a Pediatrician says about it.
Right after these brief messages from our gener sponsors, welcome
(05:22):
back to shop talking number seventy four, Michael will number
here we go. Over the past three decades, family time
at the dinner table and family conversation in general has
declined by more than thirty percent. Families with children under
the age of eighteen report having family dinners three to
four times per week. That's actually higher than I would
(05:43):
have expected, but good. One third of families with eleven
to eighteen year olds only eat one or two meals
a week together, only one fourty seven or more together.
The experience at the meal table has also to client
in quality with the increase in distractions such as television, watching,
(06:04):
text messaging, phone conversations, and social media. That's the part,
that's the part right there. Listen, we need to have
a minimum of five bills together as a family. I
get people out for work and business and school functions
and games and stuff. But a minimum five. But when
(06:24):
you're there, it needs to be family dinner. It's interesting
that the thing says the experience at the mill table
has declined in quality with the increase and distractions such
as television, watching, text musch in, phone conversation, social medium.
There's an easy way to fix that. Turn off the
TV and put the phones up. Barriers to family meals
(06:47):
cited by parents include two little time, child and adults,
scheduling challenges, and food preparation. Most parents, however, say they
place a high value on family meals, ranking them above
every other activity, including vacations, playing together, and religious services,
and helping them connect with their families and children. Most
(07:08):
wish they had more family dinners. Studies have found that
benefits such as maintenance of normal body weight, healthy eating patterns,
and less disordered eating are found when families eat at
least three meals per week together. It is also difficult
to differentiate the effect of overall quality of child rearing
by parents who practice family mills from the benefits of
(07:28):
the family mill itself. However, even the most rigid research
demonstrates the benefits to be specific to the family table,
especially for adolescents who are less likely to experience depressive
symptoms if there are more family meals. Researchers have attempted
to define the characteristics of family meals that are the
(07:51):
most beneficial.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
One meta analysis, which means you combine together all the
different research out there on one topic to find out
what the trend is.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
The one meta analysis of fifty studies oh meta analysis
of fifty studies okay. One combined study of these fifty
studies found six components to be consistently associated with the
nutritional benefits for the children. These characteristics are turning off
the television parental modeling of healthy eating, higher food quality,
(08:23):
a positive atmosphere, children's assistance with food preparation, and law
or mill duration. As early as nineteen forty three, researchers
were discussing the benefits of the family table from a
sociological and cultural viewpoint. Family table talk is an assential
part of the process whereby the family inducts the child
(08:44):
into the life of society. Family meals allow the parents
to impart values and traditions, as well as demonstrative appropriate relationships,
communication techniques, and problem solving skills. Family meals are powerful
for many reasons. First, meal time impact all of our
senses the site, touch, taste, and smell of food, as
(09:06):
well as listening to family conversation. Family meals offer the
opportunity to spend time together, reconnect after a busy day,
communicate with and listen to each other, show values and ideas,
and problem solve. Family meals also contribute to the traditions
that tie family together. A special food for a birthday celebration,
a favorite place to eat for special occasions, a cultural
(09:29):
ethnic food unique to the family's heritage. These become traditions
that provide meaning and contacts for children as they grow.
Family meals provide structure for the day, allowing children to
feel more secured and safe, knowing what to expect. They
also permit parental monitoring of children's moods. This is important.
(09:50):
They permit parental monitoring of children's moods, behavior, and activities,
providing parents with insights to the emotional wellbeing of their
child child. When extended to neighbors and friends, family meals
allow children to learn to appreciate social interactions, understand the
importance of community, and experience different ideas while under the
(10:11):
guidance of their parents. The family table is one of
the very few places that children can observe their parents interact, negotiate,
solve problems, express emotions, and treat one another with respect.
A child's world is mostly spent with peers and teachers.
The family table gives them a chance to see how
adults interact and cooperate. It also leads to improved academics.
(10:36):
Language development is enhanced. It improves family relationships socialization. It
improves nutrition and decreases obesity, decreases screen time and television viewing.
It decreased risk of drug, alcohol, and nicotine use. It
decreased other high risk behaviors. Teens who had more frequent
(10:57):
family dinners, for instance, were less likely to engage in
sexual activity, even after controlling for family connections and other
family activities. Teens who had more frequent family dinners were
less likely to engage in problem behaviors such as physical violence,
property destruction, stealing, and running away from home. Also, family
(11:18):
dinners improve mental health and emotional wellbeing. So the question
is with that which, by the way, what a study?
Why when we know the data and none of this
is new. I mean, I know this is a meta
analytic thing, but like it said, since early sixties, they've
(11:40):
been studying importance family dinners. Why when the American College
of Pediatricians are putting out this data how important family
meals are. Why in the world do I still see
people sometimes even in restaurants, having a family meal and
three of the kids sitting there on their phone. It
(12:01):
drives me nuts. Do you allow it? No?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I mean I've no devices. I'm really against devices in general.
So mine are pretty young. You know, they're six to
eleven years old. So no, I mean even all these
parents who will let their kids bring in devices into restaurants.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I watch kids sit there with likes not even a phone,
a tablet, watching a TV show or a cartoon or
something at the dinner table and a restaurant. It's it's
it's worse. It's just rude. I mean, who with with
(12:38):
the ear plugs in? What is?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Sometimes with no earplugs? I'll be on the airplane. I
don't know if you experienced this too loud.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
And I'm like ridiculous, But the question is, what are
you getting? Why even take your family to dinner? Why
not just PLoP the kid in front of the TV
and go do something else. I mean, they're not even
listening to or engaging with you.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I mean, you are setting your kids up for failure. Basically,
you're basically saying, and there is no way this child
can learn how to behave, So we're just gonna do this.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
How about interpersonal relationships? How about learning? How about learning
how to use a knife and a fork properly so
one day when you're a business dinner you don't look
like a fricking chromagnon. The all of it. It drives
me insane. So besides the fact that I have a
personal problem with it, the American College of Pediatricians also says,
(13:30):
have family meals together without a phone, a tablet, the
TV on the TV tray was the worst invention on
the face of the planet. Sit at a table, turn
the noise off, turn your phone. When I grew up,
if the phone rang and I was eating dinner, I
wouldn't even allowed to answer it, or if I was
(13:52):
near it, I could pick up and say, Hey, I'm
having dinner. I'll call you right back when it's overclick.
I mean, it should be a sacric, sainct thing that
you have a family dinner with your children without any
r options that you get. Do you know what Lisa,
did we did a good thing bad thing? Yeah, and
(14:12):
they I pulled.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
It out of that article, I think, but they had
in there talking about like rose Thorn and Buda, the
same idea, same thing.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
What good thing happened today? What bad thing happened to
you today? And go around and all it does is
it just starts conversation. It was a good day, it
was good. Yeah. Max would say. The bad thing that
happened to be today is I had to play the
stupid good thing bad thing game. Yeah. I mean, you
know you deal with that, but it's worth it. And
(14:42):
I will tell you our children now as young adults,
there's two things their kids are going to do. They're
going to do the yard work and they're going to
have family dinners because they now appreciate what that meant
for our family dynamic.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
And none of your kids are lacking words.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, they're all abundant their words. That's it.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Hey, one thing just to harb onto, you were a
stressing technology a lot and I get it, but a
lot of it too, is just too having more volume
of the family meals. People allow the busyness of life, travel, sports,
all of these things to get in the way so
making it even just more of a priority.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, well, and I said that five seven, not one,
But that's it, Alex is right. Shopped out number seventy four. Guys,
family meals. If you want to build an army and
normal folks, you got to raise an army and normal folks.
And the way you raise an army and normal folks
is you teach them. And the best place to teach
is at the dinner table. So shop talk number seventy four.
(15:42):
The American College of Pediatrics teaches us what we already know,
that the volume of family dinners you have with your
children and the quality of those dinners by turning off
the noise and the distractions and noundate us every day
with TV and tablets and phones and actually spinning an
hour or with your family, talking and interacting and enjoying
(16:04):
one another's company. The American College Pediatrics say that is
vital to raising your children healthy and well, both mentally
and physically. And I say it's vital to our civility.
It's vital to our civics that we do it. So
shot out number seventy four. Have more family meals and
(16:25):
make the quality of them higher by turning out the
noise anything else, Alex. Really cool.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Example of this too is also doing your extended family.
And so I don't know if you've heard about this
from the Wilson family, but for example, back to when
their dad was alive, Kevin's Wilson, his wife would start
having the family meals every weekend and they may have
had I don't know the number forty or something. And
Kevin's you know, Wilson, our friend has talked about they've
(16:52):
still continued it.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
His wife, Norman and them do it.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
And it's like seventy people at these family meals every
single week.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And that's great.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
And not everybody always in town every single week, so
that doesn't you know. But I mean, even if you
can do it like your broader family, you know, doing
it once a week is a really beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And I wish I had my family in town to
do it. I think that's awesome. Maybe when we have
a house again after all this construction, we'll start doing
that too, And we did, We always had. I can't
tell you any times our kids would have a friend
or two or three and we would just have an
extended family dinner. But we would still turn down and
(17:31):
do you know, our kids are now in their late twenties,
early thirties. Our kids' friends still say, do you still
stack them? So? I mean, you know, we had a
stack them thing and our kids did it. But it's
kind of speaks to if that was something they remember.
It tells me that maybe some of those kids didn't
experience that at their own family mills.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
The importance of being uncommon, as you say.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
It's very important to be uncommon. Okay, that's it. Shop
Talk number seventy four. Have more family mills and to
make the uality of a matter by turning off the noise.
It's good for you, it's good for your kids, good
for your family. If you enjoyed this shop Talk, please
rate it, review it, share it on social tell people
about us. If you have ideas for shop talk, you
(18:14):
can write me anytime at Bill at normal folks dot us,
or you can also email me there if you have
good ideas for possible people to highlight on an army
of normal folks. I appreciate you guys joining us, and
until we see you next week, do what you can
Host
Bill Courtney
Popular Podcasts
Spooky Podcasts from iHeartRadio
Whether you’re a scaredy-cat or a brave bat, this collection of episodes from iHeartPodcasts will put you in the Halloween spirit. Binge stories, frights, and more that may keep you up at night!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.